Could it be that no one else had ever truly seen that lake?
She looked at Miss Ah Qiao and tentatively asked for more information about the lake. “Why is it so dangerous if someone else gets to know my lake? Is it very fragile?”
Miss Ah Qiao nodded. “It’s like a heart made of transparent glass — fragile and vital. Just like the example I gave you earlier, in the eyes of some in the Circle who specialize in studying it, it is far more honest and far clearer than a sand tray. We call those people Lake Cutters. Most of them are self-taught outsiders with all sorts of bizarre methods, but the results they all pursue are the same. If a person like that peers into your lake, they have a complete grip on your life. The lake is not only a reflection of your inner self; changes to it will also affect you. Do you understand what that means?”
“You mean if someone modifies my lake, it will also affect my heart and mind?” Qi Ran asked, puzzled.
“You can understand it that way. Your heart, or your soul, becomes a lump of modeling clay that can be freely sculpted and kneaded. Overnight, you could become so miserly you wouldn’t spend a single cent, or just as easily become willing to throw away a fortune on total strangers. You become a complete puppet — and most importantly, all these choices come one hundred percent from your own true heart. You yourself won’t be able to detect anything wrong, because no one can truly say whether their own change was truly voluntary or not. In a sense, you become a puppet who believes yourself to be free.”
Miss Ah Qiao sighed and continued.
“Although this insidious tactic of modifying lakes is despised and jointly condemned by many major families, such things are ultimately just air. Methods have no inherent high or low, only useful or useless. Take the Lu Family of the Northeast, the Chen and Li families of the Northwest, or the former Tao Family of North China and the Xie Family of Zhongnan — these major families have all had scandals involving keeping and using Lake Cutters, though they themselves will deny it to the death. But such incidents can only be more frequent, not less. Because if a Lake Cutter’s methods are used with enough subtlety, not so obvious, only altering a few small corners — the person whose lake was modified might never know it was touched in their entire life.”
Qi Ran shivered silently. She now completely understood why Miss Ah Qiao had been so tight-lipped about the details of the lake. Because this feeling was too terrifying, like suddenly learning that “there are invisible cockroaches in the air.” Even if the other party didn’t tamper with anything, even without any evidence, you yourself would still fall into endless, draining paranoia. That faint yet enormous sense of threat could drive even the most resolute person mad — after all, you couldn’t be sure that your very resilience wasn’t something deliberately left that way to prolong the torment.
“Is there really no countermeasure?” Qi Ran asked. “This sounds way too… horrifying.”
“Of course there are,” Miss Ah Qiao nodded. “Not just some, but many, very many. First of all, the threshold to become a Lake Cutter is extremely high. Only those born without a lake can become Lake Cutters. And this special lakeless constitution is inherited paternally. Let me ask you a question first: if it were you, wanting to deal with Lake Cutters, what do you think would be the most effective approach?”
Qi Ran paused. She realized Miss Ah Qiao was truly suited to be a teacher. She seemed to quite enjoy throwing in questions like “Do you know why?” “Understand?” or “Any more questions?” while explaining things — very much in the manner of a teacher.
“Register every person born without a lake, like a household registry,” she said after a moment’s thought. “That’s the simplest and most effective method, but it can’t solve a few things. First, the authorities would need the means to determine whether someone has a lake. Second, even if all lakeless people were registered at birth, you still couldn’t actually treat them as potential criminals to monitor or summon for regular questioning. That would only backfire, turning people who intended to lead ordinary lives into actual criminals. Of course, there’s an even simpler method, and also the most impossible one — just directly…”
She drew a hand across her neck in a throat-slitting gesture. “Cut the weeds and eliminate the roots. Since the lakeless are hereditary, then let that bloodline be completely severed. Of course, that’s also the most impossible method.”
Sitting on the railing, Miss Ah Qiao rested her chin in one hand and sighed. “Your direction is correct, but there’s an even simpler method… Have you ever heard of paternal lineage screening?”
Qi Ran shook her head.
“Simply put, it’s a genetic database that registers Y-chromosome information. Many cases have been solved using it,” Miss Ah Qiao said. “For example, if one man’s Y-chromosome is highly similar to another’s, then he must be a paternal blood relative from the same family…”
“So as long as you catch one Lake Cutter, you can find all his paternal blood relatives through this genetic database,” Qi Ran grasped Miss Ah Qiao’s meaning. “But the first problem remains — how do you determine whether someone has a lake?”
Miss Ah Qiao spread her hands. “Why not just recruit the Lake Cutters? If they don’t want to be hunted down and shot, they can honestly turn themselves in and submit. After all, the pressure on those Lake Cutters is immense, too. They never know when they might be sleeping and suddenly get pinned to the floor by a bunch of fierce Executors who’ve broken down the door… and the reason is that some paternal relative they’ve never even met was caught and dragged them into it. That kind of constant fear is not easy to endure.”
Miss Ah Qiao extended a single finger, wagging it lightly as she smiled. “After all, the executors hate Lake Cutters the most. The vast majority of Lake Cutters have antisocial personalities. The euphoria of being able to manipulate others at will is enough to wash away any sense of guilt. They’re usually arrogant and conceited, believing themselves superior, and when their emotions run high, they dare to do anything. Guess why, when I listed the other major families who’ve harbored Lake Cutters, I didn’t mention the Tang Family of the Southwest?”
“Because there were many cases involving Lake Cutters in the Southwest, and under pressure from above, the Tang Family cleaned them all out with violent means?” Qi Ran guessed.
“Close, but you got one thing wrong. It wasn’t many cases — it was just one single case,” Miss Ah Qiao smiled. “That case was called the Nanyun Serial Bombing Case.”
Qi Ran nodded. Even as a native of Pingjiang in South Central, she had heard of that serial bombing case in Nanyun of the Southwest. Five simultaneous explosions, over a hundred total deaths. That incident was eventually designated as a model example of cracking down on organized crime.
“A total of one hundred and six people died in that case,” Miss Ah Qiao said. “Among the victims was a man surnamed Xu, named Xu Xinjian. His mother’s surname was Tang. And he was a member of the Nanyun Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection.”
Qi Ran opened her mouth but found no words. She could completely imagine the explosive fury of the Tang Family upon learning that someone so important had died on their turf.
“During that period in the Southwest, every single Tang Family Executor worked around the clock, searching for Lake Cutters without rest… let’s just say it was an attitude of ‘better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one slip,’” Miss Ah Qiao shrugged. “That’s why there are no Lake Cutters left in the Southwest. They were all wiped out long ago. Other regions use more moderate methods, like recruiting Lake Cutters and employing them to hunt down other Lake Cutters. Since they’re no longer called Lake Cutters, they’re no longer Lake Cutters — they become civil servants with an iron rice bowl. But those civil servants wouldn’t dare set foot in the Southwest. Any Lake Cutter has sins enough to fill an entire swimming pool.”
Qi Ran was silent for a long moment, unable to find a response.
Miss Ah Qiao patted her shoulder and said, “It’s fine. You can work on improving your own moral conscience. You’re still young, plenty of room for improvement. Strive to one day reach the level of moral vacuum like Li Siwen.”
Qi Ran rolled her eyes. She knew Miss Ah Qiao was awkwardly trying to comfort her. Taking a deep breath, she continued asking, “You said earlier there are many countermeasures. What are the other methods?”
